>At best it'll result in the terrorist attack being moved from the airplane to the security queue.

This has already happened; most terrorist attacks these days occur at malls and schoolhouses.

Same memetic infection to disrupt and destroy, same domestic hysterics, same feedback cycle. So it goes until the next big meme shift for the dissatisfied comes along.

>Not to mention that TSA over and over again fails their undercover inspections.

Every (mid-2000s) attacker that managed to get through the incompetent security was defeated by the best security force available: passengers that know that allowing their plane to be hijacked or threatened by a bomb means certain death for everyone on board should they stay in their seats and permit it.

It’s not quite true that every attacker has been thwarted.

There have been a few cases where the pilot waited for the co-pilot to use the restroom, locked them out of the cockpit with the post-9/11 door, then intentionally crashed the plane.

All of these incidents were overseas. One was confirmed, and one or two more are suspected cases of pilot suicide.

>It’s not quite true that every attacker has been thwarted.

When passengers have been able to intervene, they have defended their airplane 100% of the time.

When passengers have been prevented by regulatory means from defending themselves, they have failed to defend against a "trusted" figure turned attacker 100% of the time.

Sometimes the correct approach really is to do nothing.

I guess the security may level the playing field by discouraging attackers from taking more effective weapons.

Somewhat amazing that our solution to "idiot bum-rushing the cockpit and crashing the airplane" was to make it completely impossible to storm the cockpit in the circumstance where the idiot who wants to murder everyone is the pilot. Flawless logic, FAA.

That would be why the FAA has a rule that there must always be at least two people in the cockpit if the door is closed. In the US when a pilot needs the rest room a flight attended will take the pilots place (and usually leave the door open while watching it at that).

As the other person commented: instances of pilot suicides like this occurred outside the US, not under FAA justification.

See, I told you the FAA had flawless logic. (Thank you for the correction!)

I agree- if I’m a terrorist and I can’t hijack a plane since the cockpit door is locked during flight (and bulletproof I believe), next best thing is probably “bomb in airport”. Why kill 100 people when you can kill or injure 1000? But of course you can do that without going through TSA. In that sense, as an airport patron, I’d rather have more bomb-sniffing dogs and armed police than TSA “agents” and cavity searches.

Also, why is it up to the airline to tell TSA whether I am enrolled in PreCheck or not? If it’s not on my boarding pass, I must not have PreCheck, huh? Department of Homeland Security isn’t really sure whether I have PreCheck or not.

> At best it'll result in the terrorist attack being moved from the airplane to the security queue.

Isn't that an improvement? You can't fly a security queue into a skyscraper or a crowded arena.